The Dominican Republic’s President Hipólito Mejía inaugurated a US$100m cement plant for company Domicem, the Diario de Hoy reported. The plant, located in south-central San Cristóbal province, has the capacity to produce 1 million bags of cement a month and has created some 500 direct jobs and 1500 indirect jobs.  With the new operations, the country will reduce clinker and cement imports, which currently total 2Mt, the paper said.  The company is expected to make profits of 60m pesos (US$1.4m) a year, while sales are estimated at 3.5bn pesos (US$80.5m).  The International Finance Corporation (IFC) provided US$48m to Domicem to construct and operate the plant, an October 2003 IFC statement read.